Explore the Human Science section of The Pulse for insights into human biology, behavior and adaptation in a changing world.
Strength and size are not the same property, and the gap between them is where this result lives. A muscle is a chemical machine, and the…
A shallow pool set into the lobby of an old hotel on the Croatian coast, about ten feet deep. A man in a wetsuit floats face…
Ancient pottery from a Georgia mound city holds the earliest evidence of cacao east of the Mississippi Nearly 1,000 years ago, people gathered at Etowah —…
Three boys in San Diego wanted a science fair project big enough to get noticed. They settled on staying awake, and then had to decide which…
Cape Shirreff is dark rock, gray sand and a wind that does not stop. The beach runs about sixteen hundred feet, and the surf works over…
They came out wearing sunglasses. Fifteen people, unusually pale, blinking at a spring afternoon in the foothills of the Pyrenees, with a crowd and a bank…
Figurines carved for the afterlife. Amulets meant to protect the dead. Tomb equipment that hadn’t seen Egypt in decades. Last month in Los Angeles, the FBI…
A bat fell into a creek and did something unexpected: it swam. Not flailed, not splashed in panic — it moved through the water with a…
For thousands of years, farmers in Nepal’s mid-hill region have carved terraces into Himalayan slopes to grow the maize, millet, and rice their families depend on.…
At two archaeological sites in inland California, researchers found something that didn’t fit: beads carved from the shell of the giant rock scallop, a creature that…
A flat gray slab comes out of the ground in a garden in southern Moravia. The man who finds it puts it to work in the foundation…
The bed is tilted, but not the way anyone would guess. The head end sits lower than the feet, by an angle you would struggle to see…
Twenty two feet under a Key Largo lagoon, a man wakes in a steel room the size of a hotel bathroom. There is no hatch he…
You step into a hot shower, and the tiles throw your own voice right back at you. Suddenly you sound bold and rich. So you belt out…
One hundred and six students put on noise-canceling headphones and sat outside — some beneath a canopied urban forest, others on a paved plaza facing traffic.…
Commuters on a Chicago train were handed an instruction on the platform and sent to their seats. Some were told to start a conversation with whoever…
In late 2021, a Spanish climber named Beatriz Flamini climbed down into the dark and pulled the world shut behind her. Her plan was to live alone 230 feet…
When archaeologists unsealed a burial chamber at Tell Athar Quesna in Egypt’s Nile Delta, they found the dead still attended by their servants — 560 of…
That sharp jolt when cold water hits your teeth — or the squirming discomfort of a dental cleaning — is one of the most universally human…
Beneath the Sheikh Abd al-Qurna hillside in Luxor, one of Egypt’s most celebrated burial grounds, a Leiden University-led team has broken through centuries of accumulated dust…
The alarm on your phone goes off at 2 p.m. and your eyelids are already losing the argument. Most Americans push through it, refill their coffee,…
For millions of people, the day doesn’t really start until that first cup of coffee. But for many of those same people, the ritual comes with…
Honey has sweetened food and dressed wounds for thousands of years. But a research team has now taken it somewhere unexpected: into a bioreactor holding living…
Picture someone you love at 65, still sharp, still funny, still remembering every birthday. Now picture the one thing most of us never think to offer…
A woman removing overgrown brush behind her New Orleans home found something hidden beneath the ground. Underneath the brush was a large stone slab that had…
You know the feeling. You sit down with a task in front of you, and within minutes your mind is somewhere else entirely: a faraway place,…
Most of us have done it without thinking. A sore throat and we reach for ginger tea. A headache and we crush fresh mint between our…
Picture a burned-out young adult: running on empty, emotionally hollowed out, barely keeping pace with daily demands. It’s a familiar image — and an increasingly common…
There is a habit that tends to raise eyebrows at the dinner table. It is the person who waves off supper entirely, eats a solid breakfast…
There is a child in nearly every classroom who has learned to read the room before the teacher even walks in. They notice the tension in…
One morning you wake up and something feels genuinely different. Not tired, not sore from the gym, but subtly, bodily different, as though a switch was…
On a summer night in the Golan Heights, an amateur naturalist came across something that had no name and no precedent: thousands of tiny pill bugs…
Picture a New York pasture on a warm morning, two young Holstein steers moving slowly among a small group of strangers. The idea was simple, spend time with…
Somewhere in kitchens across America, people are reaching for the same sprig of rosemary they always do. They press it into lamb, strip it over roasted…
A robot traveled through a previously undiscovered passageway deep inside Egypt’s Great Pyramid. Its journey ended in front of something that had remained untouched for nearly…
A college student sits alone in a dorm room, scrolling through a phone while a campus full of potential friendships hums just outside the door. For…
More than one billion people worldwide now live with obesity — and most of them know that losing weight is harder than it sounds. Cutting calories…
There is a child that almost every family knows. The one who never caused a scene, who seemed older than their years, who kept the peace…
Maya monolith glyphs revealed something unusual when archaeologists made a discovery on the east coast of Mexico. Initially, it seemed to be merely a very large…
You are in the grocery store, scanning the shelves, and you hear yourself say it out loud: “Okay, pasta, then sauce.” You glance around, hoping nobody…
Picture a stone the size of a door, lying in the dry red soil of southwest Spain. It had been buried at that spot for roughly…
In most American homes there is a machine that made a whole chore almost disappear. Toss the wet laundry in, press a button, and warm dry…
There is a pan in almost every American kitchen that was supposed to make cooking effortless. It needs almost no oil, food slides right off, and…
You probably know someone who always asks the hard question first. Before the trip is booked, they want to know what happens if the flight falls…
The water off the island of Capri is famous for one thing above all others: a sea cave so blue it looks painted. But on a…
Picture a cold trench in northern England, the soil dark and silent. A young archaeology student kneels with a trowel, on the first dig of her…
Watch a crowded morning sidewalk and you will spot them everywhere. People moving through the rush with their chin tucked and their gaze fixed on the…
The alarm goes off and your hand moves on its own. One tap, nine more minutes, and you sink back into the pillow. Then it happens…
Most people over 60 think about their gut for one reason only: to keep things moving. The idea that a handful of plant fibers stirred into…
It sounds like the worst sleep advice you have ever heard. Drink a cup of coffee, then lie straight down for a nap. Everything about it…
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